Pharmacy2U and LloydsDirect will continue to run as independent businesses while the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) investigates the purchase of LloydsDirect.

The CMA has served an initial enforcement order concerning the merger of the two online pharmacies, which was announced in October.

The CMA said it was considering whether “a relevant merger situation has been created and whether the creation of that situation has resulted or may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in any market or markets in the United Kingdom”.

The two businesses must continue to operate separately while the investigation is taking place, said the CMA.

Pharmacy2U said it was “confident” that the competition watchdog will decide to approve the merger.

Pharmacy2U dispensed 1.64 million items in August 2023, while LloydsDirect, previously owned by LloydsPharmacy, dispensed 1.13 million items, according to NHS Business Services Authority data published on the PharmData website.

This makes them by some distance the top two online prescription pharmacies for items dispensed, ahead of Well.co.uk in third place (127,715 items).